Generations of Young Chinese Intellectuals

Abstract

The term ‘educated youth’, an alternative to young intellectuals, was frequently used by the communist authorities until recently. It is a discursive category consisting of two major parts that need to be unravelled. The concept of youth in the Chinese context will be dealt with first, then the intellectual status. What we are considering here is not just a matter of definitions, although these are important especially when operationalising the concept of qingnian zhishi fenzi for research purposes. There are social, cultural, historical and political factors involved in the creation and shaping of this social group with an emphasis in the communist period on the official discourse as well as the treatment of the group.